You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Saturday November 12, 1904
From The Labor World: Affidavit Asserts Bell Refused to Consider Evidence
The Vindicator Mine
Cripple Creek District, Colorado
An affidavit sworn to by Major Francis J. Ellison, who was an officer of the troops at Cripple Creek under Sherman Bell, charges that:
..he [Major Ellison] offered to Sherman Bell, Peabody's adjutant general, evidence that would clear up the Vindicator explosion. No steps, he charges, were ever taken in the matter, though he asserts that his information would have led to the arrest and conviction of the men responsible for the placing of the infernal machine.
The article in
The Labor World reveals other "amazing outrages" witnessed and sworn to by Major Ellison:
From today's Minnesota Labor World:
SWORN STATEMENT OF AMAZING OUTRAGES
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Militia Officer Makes Sworn Statement That He Offered to
Secure Evidence to Clear Up Vindicator Explosion, But Was Refused by Bell.
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Officer Also Swears That a Series of Street Riots Were Planned and Waged by
Officers of Militia to Prolong Struggle in Mining Districts.
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General Sherman Bell
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Denver, Colo., Nov. 10.-The Denver News, that reliable purveyor of news and truth, states that affidavits by members of the National guard and by the men who were deported from Cripple Creek, contain some astonishing matter. The principal affidavit is by Major Francis J. Ellison, who was an officer of the troops at Cripple Creek under Sherman Bell, General Reardon and Major McClelland. He charges that he offered to Sherman Bell, Peabody's adjutant general, evidence that would clear up the Vindicator explosion. No steps, he charges, were ever taken in the matter, though he asserts that his information would have led to the arrest and conviction of the men responsible for the placing of the infernal machine.
He further charges that under the special direction of Major T. E. McClelland, General F. M. Reardon, postmaster at Victor, a United States official, a series of street fights were commenced between men of Victor and soldiers of the National guard on duty there. He swears that each fight was planned either by General Reardon or Major McClelland and carried out under their actual direction. The instructions were "to knock them down; knock their teeth down their throats; bend in their faces; kick in their ribs and do everything except kill them."
He swears, and his evidence is corroborated by men who were with him in the work, that about the middle of February General Reardon and Major McClelland ordered him and Sergeant J. A. Chase of Troop C, First cavalry, to hold up or shoot up the men coming off shift at the Vindicator mine at 2 o'clock in the morning. When that was found impracticable, he was ordered to fire fifty or sixty shots into the Vindicator shafthouse during the night instead of taking Sergeant Chase with him, Gordon Walter of the same troop accompanied the officer and they fired sixty shots into the Vindicator and Lillie shafthouses, reporting later concerning the work to General Reardon and Major McClelland.
General Reardon, in giving his directions regarding the shooting up of the Vindicator shafthouse, stated "that Governor Peabody, General Bell, he, himself, and myself (Ellison) were the only ones who knew anything about the plan," which he insisted was intended to force the mine owners to come up with promised money. A similar attack on the Findley mine was countermanded because, as General Reardon said, "the mine owners had put up."
Major Ellison Swears to Outrages.
In June Major Ellison returned to Cripple Creek and on the 15th day of that month he was present when the mob took possession of the union store and wrecked and looted it. The major swears that he offered to give the names of the mob leaders and those who took property belonging to the union store to their homes to Sheriff Bell. Sheriff Bell said he would call for the information the next day, but the next day never came. Later he visited the sheriff in his office and repeated his offer to furnish him with the names and sufficient evidence to convict, but Bell refused to receive his information.
Major Ellison in his affidavit swears that on the night the five prisoners were taken away from Deputy Sheriff Watters and his posse he was directed to have all the soldiers on duty ordered to their barracks at 10 o'clock. At 11 o'clock that night he was informed of what had occurred to Deputy Sheriff Watters and his posse and accompanied Captain Moore in pursuit of the mob. Captain Moore insisted upon taking the wrong road, although Ellison demonstrated to him that the mob could only have gone on the Canon road. At no time did Captain Moore approach the right road in spite of Ellison's suggestion, backed by the statement of Sergeant Troth, who had just returned from Cripple Creek with a mounted patrol.
At a later time Ellison offered Captain Moore and Sheriff Bell the names of four men who had arrested a man on Second street in Victor and deported him after a frightful beating. One of these men was W. E. Dingman, the present Republican candidate for county clerk of Teller county. He offered to prove to Sheriff Bell that Dingman had accompanied several of these informal deportation parties and had carried the rope with which to intimidate the victims.
He swears, finally, that at the Republican primaries held in the city of Victor, acting under instructions of General Reardon, Major McClelland and W. E. Dingman, forty of fifty national guard soldiers, under the guidance of Sergeant Waters, Sergeant Baldwin and Private Gray, cast numerous ballots at various voting places for the ticket favored by Reardon, McClelland and Dingman. These men, he swears, were paid with money furnished by General Reardon, the postmaster at Victor.
Sergeant Gordon Walter not alone corroborates Ellison with reference to the shooting up of the Vindicator and Lillie shafthouses, implicating General Reardon in the matter, but gives further particulars of the manner in which the mine owners directed the wrecking of the union store on Bennett avenue. He charges A. E. Carlton and Harry Watters with not alone leading the mob but with directing the deportation of the men employed in the store.
Sergeant J.A. Chase, in an affidavit which is herewith published, corroborates Major Ellison and Sergeant Walters in every fact stated by them in which his name is mentioned.
Warburton and O'Neil Swear.
In addition to these sworn statements, Frederick L. Warburton and D. C. O'Neil, two of the men who were taken from the sheriff's posse, have prepared affidavits showing that Watters and Dingman arranged their deportation in such a way as to make the brutalities which they underwent not only possible, but inevitable. They tell how the members of the sheriff's posse examined the road by the light of burning matches and finally found the marks that had been left by the mob that was waiting to hold up the outfit. He tells how they came up with the mob and the sheriff's deputies immediately jumped to the rear, allowing Dingman, who was leading the mob, to jump out and order the five victims to throw up their hands. The mob led by Dingman then lined up the five men, went through their pockets, took everything of value they had and began beating and kicking them as they were running away.
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SOURCE
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota & Superior, Wisconsin)
-Nov 12, 1904
http://www.newspapers.com/...
See also:
"To Hell with the constitution."
-Maj. Tom McClelland
A Report on Labor Disturbances in the State of Colorado
from 1880 to 1904, Inclusive: With Correspondence Relating Thereto
United States. Bureau of Labor, Carroll Davidson Wright
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1905
(search with "McClelland")
http://books.google.com/... -
McClelland+JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Vindicator Explosion+JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The "Red Book" released Aug 2, 1904
Criminal Record of the Western Federation of Miners
from Coeur D'Alene to Cripple Creek, 1894-1904
-Mine Owners' Association (Colo.)
The Association, 1904
http://books.google.com/...
The "Green Book" released Aug 27, 1904
Reply of the Western federation of Miners
to the "Red Book" of the Mine operators' Association
-The Western Federation of Miners,
Denver, Colorado, 1904
pdf! http://darrow.law.umn.edu/...
IMAGES
Vindicator Mine
http://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/...
General Sherman Bell
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Vigilante Man - Bruce Springsteen
Well, what is a vigilante man?
Tell me, what is a vigilante man?
Has he got a gun and a club in his hand?
Is that is a vigilante man
-Woody Guthrie
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